blivet radio
The Radio weblog of Hal Rager

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Witchcraft "Seven or eight years ago, I spent 5 months in a small village in Equatorial Guinea with some biologists (who worked in some camp that prepared captured monkeys to be returned to the forest). I have always been interested in witchcraft and the occult, and this rural area I lived in was teeming with "rainmakers" and witch doctors. I interviewed a number of them, and frankly, they were all obvious phonies. Apart from one old and ugly man. He was probably also a phony, but he was an interesting phony. For one, he never used his "magic". All the other witch doctors and rainmakers I had visited were always eager to do something for me, eager that I paid them. Their act would then consist of a killing of a chicken and a lot of mumbling, invariably without any effective result. But this old man neither wanted to make rain for me or contact my grandmother. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary with him was that the villagers were all very deferential around him, and called him a great demon. I interviewed all the witch doctors in the area for a while, and after 3 weeks, it was only this old man that I continued to interview. He told me interesting things about his "world" of witchcraft, and I will reproduce these conversations as best as I can here. I am working from memory, so I might make a few mistakes." [kuro5hin.org] Heh, And the discussion ensues. I think the reactions are more interesting than what this person writes. Never underestimate the power of a consensual reality, what is 'possible', with a group of people. Things can greatly resemble, well, magic. Outsiders will just think they're demented. 5:55:48 PM    comment   trackback []